Commuter rail or bus rapid transit may not be coming to St. Paul’s southern suburbs anytime soon, but that isn’t stopping communities along the future Red Rock Corridor from preparing for just such a reality.

Ready to roll in Red Rock Corridor

The transit station will be built on the site of a former lumber yard at 2222 Maxwell Ave. in Newport, near the Highway 61 and Interstate 494 interchange. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Newport to build transit station next year

Commuter rail or bus rapid transit may not be coming to St. Paul’s southern suburbs anytime soon, but that isn’t stopping communities along the future Red Rock Corridor from preparing for just such a reality.

The latest sign of preparations for a transit-oriented future comes in Newport, where an open house on Wednesday will showcase designs for a transit station to be built next year near the Highway 61 and Interstate 494 interchange.

The station would become part of the fledgling Red Rock Corridor, a 30-mile transitway that may eventually bring commuter rail or bus rapid transit along the Highway 61 corridor. Plans call for stops in Newport, Hastings, Cottage Grove and St. Paul, where it would connect with the Central Corridor Light Rail Transit line. The site is at 2222 Maxwell Ave., a former lumberyard.

While the Newport station will initially serve as a stop for a Metro Transit express bus, officials say it will help gauge the community’s appetite for transit and position the corridor for the possible addition of bus rapid transit or commuter rail.

A 2007 study of the Red Rock Corridor identified commuter rail as the preferred long-term transit investment but said land and infrastructure costs could reach as much as $366 million. No money has been set aside for the transitway.

The Metropolitan Council’s 2030 Transportation Policy Plan, adopted in 2010, calls for the construction of one additional commuter rail corridor in the Twin Cities between 2020 and 2030.

“It [the transit station] is a starting point is the good way to classify it,” Andy Gitzlaff, a senior transportation planner for Washington County, said of the $2.5 million project, which is being paid for with county, state and federal funds.

Designs for a transit station on Maxwell Avenue in Newport are being finalized, and officials hope to begin construction next year. A 200-space park-and-ride surface parking lot will also be built on the site. (Submitted rendering)

A 200-stall, park-and-ride surface lot is being built next to the Newport station. Gitzlaff said planners don’t expect the number of daily passengers using the station to exceed that number.

City officials see the station as playing a critical role in a broader redevelopment that extends west to the Mississippi River and includes senior housing, townhomes and river access. Officials estimate that acquiring and preparing sites for such redevelopment could cost $15 million, but that property values could be boosted up to $54 million.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to transform not just the entrance to the city, but to Washington County,” said Barbara Dacy, executive director of the Washington County Housing and Redevelopment Authority, which is working with Newport officials on the project.

Dacy said the transit station’s proximity to the interstate, the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and the river could all help lure developers, but that “the key is the transit station.”

Several developers have already expressed interest, including Sand Companies Inc., based in Waite Park, Minn., which has signed a “letter of interest” indicating it would like to build housing in the area.

The work in Newport parallels activity in Cottage Grove and Hastings, where officials hope to spark similar redevelopment driven by transit expansion.

In Hastings, a $600,000 Metropolitan Council grant is being used to build a 100-space park-and-ride lot that should be finished by the end of the year. The city has no transit connections to the Twin Cities, but city officials have talked with Metro Transit about adding service in the future.

“Right now, we hear there’s a need and we’re thinking long term about how we entice service,” said John Hinzman, Hasting’s community development director.

In Cottage Grove, officials have spent $450,000 to buy 12 acres near Highway 61 and Jamaica Avenue, where they believe a park-and-ride lot and transit station could be built. The city has a park-and-ride lot on West Point Douglas Road, but considers the Jamaica Avenue site better suited to the kind of spin-off development a transitway could bring.

The city may buy additional land in the area, as it become available, but no construction is imminent, Cottage Grove City Administrator Ryan Schroeder said.

“These projects take time, but if you don’t start planning it’s never going to happen,” Schroeder said.

The progress comes as officials look to update cost and ridership projections for the Red Rock Corridor, one of eight commuter transitways that the Metropolitan Council has identified in its long-term transportation plan.

The 2007 study projected there would be an average of at least 1,500 daily boardings for a commuter rail line. Results from the Northstar Commuter Rail line, which opened in 2009 and runs from Minneapolis to Big Lake, will be included as part of the update.

The Northstar line has underperformed and may sober expectations for the Red Rock Corridor.

“That makes you stop and re-evaluate, to make sure the investment makes sense,” said Mike Rogers, a transportation planner in Ramsey County. “We want to make sure we’re not painting too rosy of a picture.”

The Newport transit station open house will be held from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Newport City Hall, 596 Seventh Ave., Newport. A short presentation will be given at 6:30 p.m.